Mr. Issam Abu Sulaiman, the World Bank’s Regional Director for the Gulf Cooperation Council states, affirmed that the State of Qatar is the best in performing the average growth of the Gulf countries in 2020, indicating that the dominance of the State of Qatar in the natural gas export market protects it from future fluctuations.
In an interview with the Qatari newspaper Lusail, published today, Mr. Abu Suleiman noted that the State of Qatar is heading in 2021 to recovery and achieve growth of up to 3.6 percent, while expectations indicate that the Gulf Cooperation Council countries will achieve a growth of 2.2 percent, and that a country is expected to achieve Qatar is performing better than the average GCC growth in 2020.
Regarding the factors of growth of the Qatari economy, the Regional Director of the World Bank explained that the State of Qatar depends to a large extent on hydrocarbon revenues, just like most of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Therefore, natural gas prices will remain the most important economic factor in the short and medium term .. explaining that in the term Faraway, the success of structural reforms and strategic investments will determine whether or not Qatar can diversify its economy, noting that the main non-oil sectors in Qatar such as public administration, defense, financial, insurance and real estate have positively contributed to the growth.
He added that the State of Qatar has access to the international bond market, after it issued bonds worth $ 10 billion one year after they were sold in March 2019 international bonds worth $ 12 billion, stressing that the State of Qatar maintains a large financial space through which it can address the pandemic of the virus. Corona “Covid-19”.
With regard to global energy markets and oil prices, the Regional Director of the World Bank for the Gulf Cooperation Council ruled out the curtain on the oil era, expecting that the growth of renewable energy would capture a large share of the energy market, which would increase pressure on hydrocarbons, and here the State of Qatar will have an opportunity to manage the process Transition, as natural gas will remain important for some time as a transition fuel.
On the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, Mr. Essam Abu Suleiman emphasized that this pandemic not only affected the health status, but also led to a severe economic impact as a result of exposure to supply and demand shocks, as governments put restrictive containment measures in the framework of dealing with the crisis, which Weaker consumer demand.
The World Bank’s Regional Director for the Gulf Cooperation Council states, at the conclusion of his dialogue, that the strength and speed of economic recovery depends on the duration and severity of the pandemic as well as how governments deal with its effects. Especially if governments impose incentive policies that protect vulnerable families and large, small and medium-sized companies, and the financial sector remains liquid and able to fulfill its obligations.
